Adaptation of nature conservation policy to climate change impacts

The viability of nature conservation strategies in Germany and Europe is at risk from direct impacts of climate change on protected areas, as well as due to the effects of species invasions and landscape transformation (urbanization, biofuels). A fierce debate is taking place about new strategies and legal frameworks for conservation, and little or no assessments are being made to provide quantitative support for the adaptation of strategies. Traditional methods and instruments will not be sufficient to safeguard conventional targets of nature and landscape conservation facing climate change. New concepts aim to increasingly integrate (intensively used) agricultural landscapes outside protected areas. We plan to investigate which new strategies could be supported using and improving simulation models (LPJ-GUESS, SWIM) applying multi-scenario-approaches.